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The Fish...

04-03-2007, 11:28 AM

Deborah Ann "Fish" Fischbeck died of cancer, yesterday morning, 2 April 2007, at her mother's home near Baltimore Maryland. Though she worked on both the DQ and MQ, the flame-haired beauty was best remembered on the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN as a hard-working maid who kept two linen boys running on turnover days, and could make forty beds an hour on regular days.

It was on the MQ that I first saw her on a departure day when, as the Mate, I first spied her and fell in love with her. Our first date was a row up the Yazoo where we found a sandy shore, built a fire, and as she watched amused, I swam in the river. Though we parted after nearly two years and went separate ways, we continued caring for each other. After 19 years I found her again through the internet and we have continued to correspond since.

Deborah's mother, Sara English, found her daughter had passed away when she went to awaken her for breakfast on Monday morning. It was Mrs. English's 89th birthday. The family has requested donations to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers. A graveside ceremony will be held in St. Joseph's Cemetery near her home on Tuesday.

I met her when she first came aboard the MQ. She was smart and a reader and a writer. She was lovely and didn't know it. She had a terrific wry sense of humor. She had a certain intensity about everything she did. She was totaly involved whether she was working or hiking or having fun or just watching the river go by. She also had the writers ability to step back and examine herself and others with a sense of discovery.

She wanted to learn all there was to know about steamboats and the people who steered them and the people made them go. She always wanted to know what was around the next bend in the river. She wanted to see what was on the other side of the ocean - and she did. She left those of us on the muddy water and went to sea. With time and distance I lost touch with her until a year or so ago.

She still had ever single quality that I had so admired twenty five years ago. We got to catch up with each others lives; what it was like, what happened and what it was like now. It was so nice to be able to renew the bond of friendship before she was gone - gone much too soon.

There is a hole in my heart but I am grateful that she was in my life if only for a little while.

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"She was a great gal and so much fun! I remember the many hours you spent telling me about her and the excitement in your eyes. That's what happens at this time in our lives. The ones we loved the most leave us. God bless her..."

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Wasn't Debbie the one who tapped you with the nickname "Steamboat Willie"? "Fish" was a steamboat nut in action; she was Spartan in her use of words. Instead of talking a lot, she did a lot. In the two years I worked with her on the str. MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, I got to be her friend. We went ashore together twice that I recall: once on a long walk from Dubuque across the bridge to Illinois and back. With those long legs, she could walk fast and I had to save my breath just to keep up with her. Another time, Debbie and I cruised on the str. NATCHEZ, laughing in the sunshine. She was a fine steamboater and a fine friend. Debbie Fischbeck is the only friend who came to see me when I was laid up in the VA Hospital in NOLA.

Is it just a coincidence that I am planning to go to sea on cargo ships, just as Fish did when she finished her steamboating days?

Captain Don, please post the photo of Fish and me on the swing of the MQ.

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The thing I remember most about Deborah Fishbeck is how she loved being outside. she loved to sleep in her sleeping bag out behind the Pilot House on beautiful nights. I can still hear her voice and see that red hair blowing in the wind.

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Remembering Deborah Anne Fischbeck, affectionately-known as "Fish", who died on this day five years ago.....

Flame-haired beauty who loved the sea, rivers, and all things nautical. An Honor Graduate, Cum Laude, of Towson University, who, after graduation, became a beloved member of the early crew of the Steamboat MISSISSIPPI QUEEN. Sailed at sea and was often called "Neptune's Daughter". Bright, witty, intelligent, and spoiling for adventure... "she was nature's fine art".

Miss ya, Fish....

Johnny Dew. "Our son," Fish called him.

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The Fish has been six years this past Tuesday, 02 April 2013. Her passing was not forgotten, by any means... we were away from the computer, but flowers and sentiments were sent to her mother, Sara, who also celebrated her 95th birthday on the same date her beloved daughter died.

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Another year has rolled swiftly by, and today marks the seventh year that the Fish has passed from this Earth. Though the years become dimmer with each passing one, the memory of the beautiful, flame-haired beauty, the "Queen of the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN", has not diminished.